Page 19 of Slayin Villain
Villain: You just leave?
Villain: Talk to me.
I threw my phone into the passenger seat and floored it out of the compound.
I didn’t cry.
I didn’t break.
Not until I was in my trailer, back in my pajamas, barefoot and staring at the empty space on my nightstand where he usually dropped his chain.
That’s when the sickness hit.
I barely made it to the bathroom in time.
Violent heaving tore through me until I had nothing left but a sour taste in my throat and tears in my eyes.
This wasn’t just stress.
This wasn’t denial anymore.
I dragged myself to the cabinet, opened the drawer where I kept the test I’d bought three days ago just to be sure but didn’t have the guts to use.
I peed on the stick with shaking hands and sat on the floor.
I stared at the test for exactly three minutes.
Then I stared at the two lines.
Two.Not one.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
Not just brokenhearted.Not just betrayed.
Still fucking pregnant.
Later that night, curled up under a blanket that didn’t smell like him and stared at the blank screen of my phone.No new texts.No more calls.Just a photo of him and me from a month ago, back when he’d talked about giving me a property patch.
I’d believed him.
I thought I was the only one.
I thought he was mine.
But tonight, he looked like someone else’s.
And I didn’t know if I was strong enough to find out which version of him was real.
Chapter 8
Ember
Royal Road wasn’t the only stage I knew.
Before joining Eve’s band, I played honky tonks on Broadway and dive bars all over Nashville, stringing heartbreak into fiddle solos under neon signs.
Well, Eve used to lead the band before she ran off with Kingpin’s brother Beau Strick.Country royalty.Well, my girl Eve didn’t run off like that.She had a chance to see the world and took it.As far as I know, Beau was happily married to Kingpin’s ex and Eve’s smitten with Prez.And she’d come back.But she wasn’t back, back.She was still in her husband’s bed.Catching up, she called it.
